Racing Wheel (Thrustmaster T300RS) Configuration & Usage Guide

[M.Walrus]

I've had a great experience with a variety of games on MiSTer using the T300RS, and wanted to share some basic configuration information, per-game configuration settings, and pre-configured input map files to make things easier for folks wanting to try it as well. This wheel provides a lot of great experiences on MiSTer if you know how to configure it correctly.

Keep in mind that some of these configurations are meant specifically for use with the 3-pedal set for T300RS, called the T3PA. Should work fine for the two-pedal default set as well, but some games are specifically configured with 3-pedal use in mind, like Out Run for PC Engine and Spy Hunter Arcade.

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Basic Configuration:

Grab my main map file here, or configure as shown below: https://mega.nz/file/XB1CXC5a#l433E7ckI ... P9QPPHm3Eo

Here are the bindings you want to set in the main (menu) core - skip all the mouse emulation stuff:
Stick 1 Test Tilt Right - Wheel Right
Stick 1 Test Tilt Down - Gas Light/Quick Tap
Stick 2 Test Tilt Right - Clutch Light/Quick Tap (skip this if using the stock two pedal set)
Stick 2 Test Tilt Down - Brake Light/Quick Tap
D-pad and face/shoulder buttons in normal locations.
Menu - L3 Button On Base To Prevent Accidental OSD While Playing
Stick 1 Tilt Right - Wheel Right
Stick 1 Tilt Down - Gas Light/Quick Tap

It's very important with this wheel to press each pedal very lightly and quickly when binding, otherwise it will try assigning multiple functions to the axis in each direction. This can make it so that when it asks to assign the d-pad and face buttons, the wheel is entirely unresponsive. If this occurs, cancel the binding and then start again from scratch until the other buttons register. Make sure to test them when you're done to be sure you didn't accidentally bind something you did not intend to the analog axis'!

The most important thing for MiSTer usage currently, is knowing the hardware button combinations to do things like limiting the wheel rotation range. You'll want the lowest setting (270 degree) generally for older arcade-style games, though perhaps kick the radius up a notch for things like Gran Turismo on PlayStation. Use these instead of mister.ini options for radius for best results, as they trigger the force feedback of the wheel at the desired radius. I've compiled a list of these button combinations, but for all of them to work you need to have the latest firmware for the wheel: https://pastebin.com/Qk2Tbq0s

If you're trying to (re)bind normal button presses to the pedals, be sure to hold the applicable pedals down half-way before entering the (re)binding screen, and then press and hold down all the way before pressing the digital button you would like to bind there. This prevents the button from being applied to the negative axis direction and being continually pressed when the pedal is released.

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Here are the things I've tried on MiSTer with this wheel, using the T3PA three-pedal set with 270-degree mode set on the wheel unless otherwise noted:

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-- Out Run for PC Engine in XE-1AP analog mode. This is a near-perfect setup, with the only quirk being that the clutch pedal is used as a shifter. This is necessary because XE-1AP controller used analog up/down for shifting, and is quite easy to use with the clutch pedal as an alternative. You only ever have to hold in the clutch to be in low gear, so it's only pressed at the beginning of the race or when recovering from an accident. This configuration requires custom main bindings to correctly apply the pedals to the correct functions! I've provided them below in a zip to make this easy to drop-in and play, but be sure to back up your main wheel bindings first so you don't need to re-do them!

Input map files & notes for this setup: https://mega.nz/file/DJcx3CwZ#UJqbzJ1Qp ... _LKmhwHavE

Video example: https://youtu.be/dKc45g3GOS4

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-- Spy Hunter Arcade with full analog steering and gas control. This one also uses the clutch (or brake) pedal for switching gears, and much like Out Run you only want to be in low gear when first starting or continuing from a crash or weapons van. Unfortunately the core treats the high/low gear function as a button that needs to be held, so to get around this the pedal is used and is only in low gear when pressed in, and remains in high gear when released. In the arcade this functioned as a toggle that did not require holding anything down. Hopefully the core will have an option to switch between these two modes, as both are indeed handy depending on the input device being used. There is no brake function on the arcade original, so you just release gas to brake. The large number of face buttons on the wheel are perfect for a game like Spy Hunter and after a bit of practice felt very natural to the original arcade experience. Make sure to set the following core options: Accelerator: Analog , Steering: Analog X

My input map file for Spy Hunter (weapons on L2/R2 & Paddles): https://mega.nz/file/GBk1CSAB#z5WOGdiPG ... LQ85CpdnvQ

Video example: https://youtu.be/6My64aeuBbc

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-- Ridge Racer Type 4 for PlayStation. Perfect analog wheel control with full analog gas & brake. Core options- P1 Input: NegCon-Wheel. In-game options- NegCon control type: A , Steering Play: 3mm , Max Rotation: 45 Degrees

Video examples: https://youtu.be/nWiCh_pfNN0 , https://youtu.be/odnCjnErKfs

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-- Gran Turismo for PlayStation. 360 Degree Wheel Mode! Perfect analog wheel control with full analog gas & brake.
Core options- P1 Input: NegCon-Wheel. In-game options- Analog Setting: 0, 127, 1, 253, 2, 253, 2

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-- Colin McRae Rally 2.0 for PlayStation. 360 Degree Wheel Mode! Perfect analog wheel control with full analog gas & brake.
Core options- P1 Input: NegCon-Wheel. Calibrate in game options.

Video example: https://youtu.be/rwonb7c_Iqw

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-- Stunts for DOS/AO486. Make sure to play the v1.1 Broderbund release for proper analog steering. Gas and brake are combined to one pedal but this isn't really an issue for Stunts since the brake isn't analog anyways, and you will perform best by going directly from gas to brake by releasing the pedal. See the description in the video below for more information.
Core options- Joystick Type: 2 Buttons, Joystick Mode: 2 Sticks, Joystick 1: Enabled. Map Buttons 1&2 to shifter paddles if using manual transmission. In-game options- Enable Joystick with CTRL-J and calibrate.

Video example: https://youtu.be/GRop6sOiQ4o

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I will be experimenting more with usage in various cores and add additional notes here in the future. Results have been very good with this wheel/pedals setup so far though, as long as you know how to configure properly. Cheers!

[M.Walrus]

Other helpful links:

These two links will give a good idea of which games you can try with a wheel on PlayStation. NegCon-supported games are the best fit because the device supports analog steering, gas and brakes:
http://brittens.org/NegCon.html
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

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Cathode Ray Blog's General MiSTer Wheel Setup Guide, covering many different wheel types:
https://www.cathoderayblog.com/racing-w ... -dec-2022/

[DenizB]

I've had a great experience with a variety of games on MiSTer using the T300RS, and wanted to share some basic configuration information, per-game configuration settings, and pre-configured input map files to make things easier for folks wanting to try it as well. This wheel provides a lot of great experiences on MiSTer if you know how to configure it correctly.

Wow! Thanks a bunch. I wanted to check in on the status of Thrustmaster wheel, but expected to have to wade through a ton of not interesting stuff. This was very much appreciated, so thanks for writing this up in a clear and useful fashion

[M.Walrus]

Wow! Thanks a bunch. I wanted to check in on the status of Thrustmaster wheel, but expected to have to wade through a ton of not interesting stuff. This was very much appreciated, so thanks for writing this up in a clear and useful fashion

Glad you found it useful! If you have anything to add or cool experiences to try with the wheel on MiSTer, be sure to post here and I'll add further games/configurations to the original post.

[KnightNZ]

Can confirm that this works a treat, thanks so much. Those buttons to reduce the wheel rotation should be in the device manual, not hidden in their FAQ as they appear to be.

[DenizB]

Eagerly anticipating the less alpha-quality build of the Out Run core now thanks to this.

[bankshot]

Success!!! After a few attempts with no luck, I have finally got my steering wheel/pedals working on the MiSTer/PSX core!

I have the Logitech G29, not the Thrustmaster, but M.Walrus' guide was just as helpful! (Can we remove the Thrustmaster specific reference from the thread title)? I used a combo of M.Walrus guide and atrac17's Patreon post here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/logitech-wheel-69857028

Here are my tips, some of them are probably dumb:
1.) I could only get the G29 to configure in PS3 mode, not PS4 (The switch on top of the steering wheel column).
2.) The paddle shifters are L1 and R1.
3.) Don't skip the 2nd round of Stick 1 Tilt tests at the end.
4.) M.Walrus is very correct on the light tap of the pedals - if you hit too much, it's game over and start over from the beginning.

The steering is too sensitive for me as-is (even with Gran Turismo on max range), but hoping I can get it dialed in with some config/ini tweaking.

[M.Walrus]

Success!!! After a few attempts with no luck, I have finally got my steering wheel/pedals working on the MiSTer/PSX core!

I have the Logitech G29, not the Thrustmaster, but M.Walrus' guide was just as helpful! (Can we remove the Thrustmaster specific reference from the thread title)? I used a combo of M.Walrus guide and atrac17's Patreon post here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/logitech-wheel-69857028

Here are my tips, some of them are probably dumb:
1.) I could only get the G29 to configure in PS3 mode, not PS4 (The switch on top of the steering wheel column).
2.) The paddle shifters are L1 and R1.
3.) Don't skip the 2nd round of Stick 1 Tilt tests at the end.
4.) M.Walrus is very correct on the light tap of the pedals - if you hit too much, it's game over and start over from the beginning.

The steering is too sensitive for me as-is (even with Gran Turismo on max range), but hoping I can get it dialed in with some config/ini tweaking.

Great to hear it helped with your G29 also! I expected that to not have as many problems as the Thrustmaster because Logitech support seems to have gotten more attention since wheel stuff was added to MiSTer. Interesting it has a lot of similar issues.

I'm keeping this Thrustmaster specific because that's all I have to test against and the only configurations I can share and be sure will work for folks that have similar/the same wheels.